I feel particularly fortunate to work in such a social environment. Some days it requires focus finishing a task at hand with neighbors frequently stopping by to say hello, others rolling in mid-conversation, lively and animated - sometimes awkward. I hear odd snippets from odd folks walking past us on 40th too: "Revolutionary? Whatcha talking.. I said Missionary, fool. NO that's not vanilla.. It's what I LIKE!"
Inside the shop, mostly at the bar, I'll catch new phrases that are peculiar and absurd. Often hilarious. One time a group were playfully arguing where to go for dinner, with all in agreement but one woman who said that she was going to filibuster that. I heard a woman visiting from Ventura use the term cheeseburger as a verb when discussing saving money (ie. "if you have the money, buy property now or you'll just cheeseburger it all away"). I heard a different woman use the term ninja sex, not to suggest any acrobatic nature - but that they had to stay silent due to thin walls and a sensitive housemate.
My favorite new phrase was overheard last week: rosé chaser. Perhaps due to the heatwave, or things at the office, or the ongoing political climate - but a gentleman sat down to join his friend after work here and said: "This was a great idea...after the day I've had, I need a rosé chaser". I nodded to myself, and continued polishing glasses in preparation for an evening wave. My pink heart said these are your people.
Whatever day or week you've had, whatever chaser you need, and/or whatever you're chasing, we are here for you. Roll in to OAKLAND YARD this weekend and let it all out. TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! French Reds and Italian Whites. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass as always.
SATURDAY: Wines of SPAIN (and Paella!) Tasting Flights of Albarino, Txakolina, Rosé - and a Red from the Canary Islands... and our friend and neighbor, Rob, has offered to make his famous Paella! Flights $15 from 2-6 (and free paella samples while it lasts)! Wines by the glass too until 9pm.
SUNDAY: French ROSÉ TASTING. A rosé chaser for your week(end). All from Provence this Sunday. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm. Wine Club pick up party too!
See you soon,
Daniel
I was a gamer as a child. Not Atari, or Sega, but a lot of whiffle ball, Nok Hockey, ping pong, and pool. My brother and I had a small pocket billiards table that must have come from my grandparents’ house in Long Island, and we had it set up in the smaller of two barns on our property. This barn was also the homerun fence for our whiffle ball games: over the barn, out of the park.
Vassar College had a pool table in every dormitory, so that made my school choice easy. I continued my training in earnest, and hung out with the campus sharks. The simplicity and timelessness of the game appealed to me, as did the feeling of power that came from swiftly and silently shutting down opponents. At the table, I was known for my impatience, and there was a cartoon image of me drawn on the Cushing poolroom wall, holding a cue stick and yelling ‘shoot!’ Eight ball has many variations, so my college friend and billiards guru, Seth Legnini, wrote up a set of house rules to address the basic disputes about scratches and kisses, balls in hand, and such. It also included some good advice, like “if you have chalk, chalk a lot.” And the very first rule, our golden rule: “Start simple; build something beautiful.”
Exactly fifteen years ago, my pool career peaked. My Monday night league team out of the Raccoon Lodge in lower Manhattan won the 2004 New York regionals, and the American Pool Association flew us to Las Vegas to compete in the APA finals; the amateur pool player’s dream. It was my first time in Las Vegas and it struck me as a celebration of the worst of America. My wife, Julia, and I had just started dating, and she came out to surprise me at the competition. I won my match, but the rest of the team crapped out, and I learned a few things about myself: I could kick ass under pressure, I never needed to go back to Vegas, and I was deeply in love with Julia.
We started Oakland Yard as a simple place to taste and buy wine and to meet friends, and you all have turned it into something beautiful. For love of love, and for love of Oakland, come join us this week for a tasting flight. No games and no impatience, just a slew of tantalizing wines to satisfy your curious palate.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! PORTUGUESE WHITES & SPANISH REDS: Iberian wines from the Minho, Navarra and the Penedes. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 8/24: CABERNET FRANC Tasting: Four styles of Franc, from light and fruity to dark and serious. Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 8/25: SKIN-MACERATED WHITE WINES: ‘Orange’ wines from Austria, Italy and the Republic of Georgia. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
I recently returned from a quick trip to the Catskills. Those with toddlers will note my reluctance to call it a vacation. My daughter is 20 months now - volcano energy, scrambling about at great speeds, climbing on everything, no real sense of peril. She spent most of her afternoons there lakeside, mucking about on the shore, shoveling wet sand everywhere - much of it right into her mouth. I would try to intervene, fail, rinse her mouth out - and then she'd be right back at it minutes later. Another dad nearby offered curious consolation: "That's just what they do at that age... my daughter's first full sentence was I like dirt."
Terroir is a funny thing. Roughly meaning "a sense of place", it is a term we hear and use a lot in the wine world. It is the combination of natural elements of a region (or a single vineyard): soil composition, elevation, latitude, microclimate, etc... these site specific influences that somehow leave a "signature" on the wines from there. Or, more succinctly, the physical elements of place that give the resulting wine its particular character.
But it is an elusive thing and argued over endlessly. Many critics dismiss terroir as a myth or a marketing ploy, objecting to the use of terms like "minerality" as there is no scientific proof to connect the perception of ‘minerality’ to actual minerals in a wine. And yet, a "mineralness" is somehow present in wines from certain sites. And what critic, Matt Kramer, calls a "somewhereness" does seem to exist - for whatever reason Pinot Noir from Burgundy tastes different from cru to cru, and even more so than Pinot from Russian River Valley, or Chile's Casablanca Valley.
Come explore this elusive somewhereness with us - and decide for yourself. Flights here every Thursday and all weekend. Fun, informal, and far more delightful than a mouthful of dirt.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Italian Whites and Domestic Reds. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass as always.
SATURDAY: All French Rosé Tasting:
2018 Marc Plouzeau Chinon Rosé
2018 La Raimbauderie Sancerre Rosé
2018 Chateau de Peyrassol Commanderie Rosé
2018 La Bastide Blanche Bandol Rosé
Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm!
SUNDAY: Wines of Greece! These grape varieties are a mouthful indeed. Roditis, Moschofilero. Xinomavro. Limniona. Mavroud. Come escape the heat with these delicious island wines. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm. And yes, there will be minerality.
See you soon,
Daniel
“I cut my teeth on Carlo Rossi...” began one customer’s memorable request for a recommendation, with a humble nostalgia for the old grocery store jug wine. Well, we all start somewhere. Might as well be honest and poetic about it. At times, I’ve been self-conscious about my knowledge of wine, as though it were a badge of bourgeois privilege, or a decadent pastime, but it’s really just the result of a long–standing fascination, carefully chosen priorities, and some fixed attention.
Wine appreciation in the U.S. has an image problem; wine culture smacks of elitism. It is esoteric, stuffy, joyless, and rigid. Wine is not punk rock, unless it’s poured in a water glass and downed in one go. I watched this happen at Oakland Yard several months ago, and it was pretty punk rock. There’s also a lot of classist bullshit fertilizing our favorite agricultural product. A comprehensive understanding of wine requires access to considerable means, signifying social status. Some smarmy somms will play this up, their net worth pinned to all they’ve swallowed, but that’s not why we’re in the game.
Wine at Oakland Yard is not hoity-toity, and it will not make you fancy; it is the farmers’ drink, a combination of vine, water, dirt and sun, with ancient roots and one ingredient. Come taste with us this week and reclaim the people’s beverage. Tasting flights every Thursday are always just $12 and our $15 and under bottle selection is prodigious and delicious.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! FRENCH WHITES & ITALIAN REDS. Wines from the Loire Valley, the Savoie, Alsace, Piedmont, Campania & the Valle d'Aosta. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 8/10: THREE SHADES of CHINON Tasting Flights of Red, White & Rosé Chinon. Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 8/11: CALIFORNIA WHITE WINES: Zah Chenin Blanc, Tendu Cortese, Luuma Chardonnay & Highlawn Picpoul. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
Someone once casually gave me bottle of red from Napa. Bigger and bolder than wines I normally drink, I thought my brother might enjoy it, so I grabbed it one day on my way out the door and we brought it to our local burger joint. We didn't finish it and left a third for our server. The next week, Wine Spectator awarded it something near 100 points and named it Wine of the Year.
One of my best friends got married this past weekend. We were housemates - or rather, cabin mates - during two separate spells. The first, exactly one decade ago, when I joined him and another friend in western Sonoma, three interns pursuing careers in winemaking. Working early mornings, cleaning and scrubbing tanks and barrels and bins - sorting though grapes and dreams and personal relationships. Long back-breaking days and late nights in barrel rooms and dank cellars.
It was rare that the 3 of us would be home (or at least awake) at the same time, let alone for a proper meal together. But I remember the first evening it happened - each of us not knowing when we'd be out and having individually picked up take out, we all hobbled in around the same hour. Stretched out on sofas, feet up, limbs sore- watching comedy central in silence, our remaining energy reserved for chewing our monster burritos. At some point one of them offered to open up a wine that his boss had given him, a leftover from their harvest lunch. In my memory at least, it was many minutes later of chewing and swallowing before a second silence was broken:
I'm not sure who spoke first, but they said, simply: "This is good."
Then someone, quite a bit later: "... Uh, this is good"
And a while after that, a third reaffirmation: "This is like really really good, right?..."
Eventually someone jumped on a laptop to look up the wine and discovered it was indeed "good". Like really good. A somewhat rare and very expensive bottle too, probably deserving more than to be paired with Taqueria Santa Rosa and Michael and Michael Have Issues.
I was thinking about my friend and his new wife this morning. And I guess about life and love and wine and burritos. About all the pomp and celebration of things, of little splendid things sometimes right under our noses. About the lucky moments, when exhausted and spent, we are moved enough to pause and look around and say to ourselves: This is good. This is really good...
All good things ahead here at OAKLAND YARD...
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! We're pouring new French Reds and crisp, dry Austrian Whites. Come celebrate the good things with us. No burritos next door, but Tacos Oscar is open tonight with tacos and other delights that your are welcome to bring in and enjoy here. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY, August 3rd: BEAUNE IMPORTS TASTING with special guest RACHEL GOLDMAN – Rachel will share her prodigious knowledge and pour flights of delicious, classically-styled wines from Italy, Spain, and France - $15 from 2-6pm
SUNDAY, August 4th: SPARKLING FLIGHTS at OAKLAND YARD... The sun will be out and we'll be popping corks and pouring dry, delightful bubbly from around the globe. Flights from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!
See you soon,
Daniel
Sicily may seem worlds away from California – 6,500 miles, as the Hoopoe flies - but we share many traits with this sun-drenched, blood-soaked, triangular island. We both possess cultures rich with the diversity of a constant influx of immigrants, similarly shaped by towering mountains, fertile plains and surrounding sea. They have castles and canoli; we have San Simeon and See’s Candy. And, of course, we are both blessed with a balmy, Mediterranean climate.
There are five million Sicilians on ten thousand square miles, while we, the People of the Bay, are close to eight million on seven thousand square miles. For sheer wine production volume, Sicily has us well beat: at over 150 million gallons in 2018, the island is the fourth largest wine producer in Italy (the world's largest wine producing country) after the Veneto, Puglia, and Emilia Romagna. California produces only about 15.3 million gallons of wine, but this is nearly 90% of our country’s wine, and grape growing and winemaking are an integral part of our cultural identity. Interestingly, only about 15% of Sicily’s wine is actually bottled; the rest is sold ‘sfuso’ in bulk to other regions, or on site to the locals.
Join us this weekend to taste and compare some of these delicious wines! We’ll be pouring California Rosés this Saturday and Sicilian tasting flights on Sunday. We’re also delighted to welcome Brendan and Nicolette’s friends and family for a grand old Saturday afternoon pre-wedding celebration. Come one, come all; it’s bound to be lively!
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Italian Whites & Chilean Pipeños. Frascati, Favorita, Garganega, and a whole lotta País. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 7/27: CALIFORNIA ROSÉ Tasting Flights from 2 to 6pm AND Brendan and Nico’s Prenuptual Party from 3 to 6!!!– Dry rosés from Phantome Cellars, Cote West, and Arnot-Roberts, $15 flights until 6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 7/28: SICILIAN Flights: Catarratto, Etna Bianco, Frappato, & Etna Rosso. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
I've been watching the new season of Stranger Things, the dark sci-fi series soaked in 80s nostalgia. The last episode featured a town fair and it brought back the memory of the annual carnival that would pop up at my elementary school. At that age it was always surreal to me - the way our kickball 'fields' and basketball and handball courts - ultimately just a sprawling neighborhood block of asphalt - could transform into something so magical, so animated and wild. A full day of trucks and noise - classroom windows rattling and redirecting the pings of metal poles and the endless hammering. And then, seemingly in a blink, a small spinning steel city suddenly erected. The evening would descend and everything would glow, my whole little world all bells and lights and music and mischief. An irresistible mix of romance and danger in the air. Everyone laughing and hollering, and holding on to each other.
This SATURDAY, July 20th, from 11-5pm... two long blocks of 40th St. stretching from Webster to Opal (or from Broken Guitars to Hog's Apothecary) will transform into a pedestrian paradise of food trucks, an outdoor beer and wine garden, artisan vendors, and live music galore! No Ferris wheels or carnival chaos, but there will be activities for kids of all ages and special musical guests! A certain famous neighbor of ours, we'll call him Billie Joe A. (wait thats too obvious... let's just say B.J. Armstrong) and his friends will be headlining on the main stage and playing a set of covers sure to get things rocking into the evening. Mark your calendars and roll on down. The 40th St Block Party is FREE!!! OAKLAND YARD will have a booth in the center of it all, and the shop and our (air-conditioned:) indoor bar will be OPEN normal hours all day from 11-9pm with bottles to go and wines by the glass, as always!
But first TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! We'll be pouring Italian Whites and French Reds this evening. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY: ROSÉ Tasting Flights from around the globe.
2018 Von Winning Rosé (Germany)
2018 Bisson Ciliegiolo Rosato (Italy)
2018 Yves Cuilleron 'Sybel' Rosé (France)
2018 SKY Vineyards Rosé (Napa Valley)
Flights $15 from 2-6 pm and wines by the glass until 8pm!
Hope to see you all there,
Daniel
There is no history of ‘natural’ wine, for it is the history of winemaking itself. There is, however, a clear history of ‘unnatural’ wine, or spoofulated wine, as importer Joe Dressner called it. It wasn’t until the 1940’s, with the sudden and widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, that unnatural wine was born. After the war, the same chemicals used to make TNT and other munitions were redirected to the fields, and chemical companies convinced scores of vigneronsthat these additions would produce a larger, healthier, more reliable crop. Most of the prized vineyards of Europe were greatly damaged, some would say permanently compromised, by these innovations, and the new ‘natural’ wine movement developed, in large part, in response to this destruction, as a return to traditional farming methods, an effort to bring life back to the soil.
Our concept of ‘natural’ wine does have a history. For many winemakers, it began with knowledge of low-intervention winemaking techniques championed by vignerons like Marcel Lapierre, Jules Chauvet and Henri Jayer, but for us wine drinkers and retailers in the US, these wines, and the awareness that they were somehow different from the rest, came from conscientious wine importers, like Joe Dressner, Kermit Lynch and Neal Rosenthal. Back in the ‘90’s, they didn’t call it natural wine; it was small-production, organically farmed, un-manipulated, low-tech wine, and it simply tasted better than the elaborately concocted alternatives. By this point, it was about more than just chemicals in the field; now there were micro-oxygenation machines, over-powering strains of yeasts, Mega-Purple for color, alcohol adjustments and additives used to create a consistently marketable product. These importers made it clear to us that this was not really wine, and they cultivated in us a taste for the simple, unique agricultural products we continue to seek out and enjoy.
This Sunday, July 14th, we’ll pour flights of fresh, fruity French reds from producers who exemplify this authentic approach, those who made us fall in love with these wines decades ago. Come taste the wines of Lemasson, Puzelat, Bonhomme, and Dinocheau and decide for yourself if they are not more alive, interesting, and straight up delicious than their ninety-eight point competitors.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights!: Italian reds and Spanish whites. Scintillating Sicilian & southern Italian reds, and outrageously refreshing, organically farmed whites from the Penedes, the Basque country, and Castilla la Mancha. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 7/13: VINS DE SAVOIE – French Alpine flights – there’s something special about that mountain sun - $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 7/14: LOIRE VALLEY REDS: Pure, unspoofulated vins de soif, including a few of the classics imported by Louis/Dressner. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
I certainly don't remember my first BBQ, but I can almost still smell the smoke of so many from youth to yesterday. My father lighting up the chimney in the side yard. Endless summers at the Gleasons. Forgotten flames and burnt burgers. Age 12, consuming an entire jumbo bag of old Jujubes and a gallon of Mountain Dew and later vomiting in a bush. The time a company of salsadancers crashed the party. The time I grilled a giant tri-tip steak that went missing - convinced my friends had hid it, only to surrender to the shock and disappointment that our dog, Max, had indeed devoured the entire thing when we weren't looking.
I love BBQ's and their slow, secret rhythm that belies the wild 'anything goes' spirit of the spread - an all day buffet of odd belly fellows like salsa and jello. Funyuns and footlongs. Mesquite burgers and Mayonnaise cake.
With a retail shop, sometimes all the shortspeak and the shpiel, hashtags and the like - things that came along with promoting what we are and what we do - seem a bit silly. I sometimes joke that we specialize in Adventure Provisions. Wines to pair with parties and picnics and camping and coastlines. But BBQ Provisions, though far less sexy, might be even more succinct. And perhaps it all sounds a bit too whimsical, but at the end of the day there's really nothing that got me into wine more than the simple pleasure of the weekend BBQ. Nothing that gets me more excited to drink wine. A communal feast for friends, for families, for fun - and a mystical math where the scattered independent elements seem to somehow total one million in the end. And, if you're lucky, fireworks.
OAKLAND YARD is OPEN today! Special HOLIDAY HOURS for July 4th, from 11-6pm. No flights tonight but we'll be keeping the spirit going through the long weekend. SATURDAY 7/6 from 2-6 we'll pouring BBQ wines. Session wines. Picnic and party provisions. Crips white, dry rosé, fresh, chillable reds. A focus on fun and affordable, food-friendly, day-drinking delights. SUNDAY will be all Sparkling Flights at OAKLAND YARD... Flights from 2-6 both days and wines available by the glass too as always!
Happy fourth, happy long weekend, and happy grilling.
Cheers,
Daniel
As the cranes of unrelenting growth stack studios and one-bedrooms on every horizon, it is interesting to look back on Oakland’s not-so-distant past, its strange and colorful history, the stories that came before our own. In the 1800’s, before the electric commuter trains occupied our space, there was a horse-drawn tramcar line running up Telegraph Avenue, then called Humboldt Avenue. The horsecars operated out of a large barn on 51st, where the Walgreens now stands.
The horse barn was built beside Temescal Creek, the hidden watershed that defines our neighborhood, just a stone’s throw from the DMV, where Vicente Peralta built the first adobe structure in 1836, dubbing it Rancho Temescal. In 1820, Vicente’s father was given 45,000 acres – pretty much all of the east bay - by the Spanish Crown, for forty years of military service; his Rancho San Antonio stretched from San Leandro to Albany. Vicente and his brothers had more than 2,000 horses and 8,000 cattle, raised not for meat, but for hides and tallow. The Peralta’s built a slaughterhouse on 14th street and 12th avenue, where there is now a Burger King.
Temescal Creek, likely named after native sweat lodge huts the vaqueros discovered along its banks, is one of many ways water gets from the hills to the bay. Over the years, the creek has been culverted and redirected to accommodate new development, but it still carries much of the runoff beneath us from the east. Anthony Chabot, the ‘Water King’, dammed the creek in 1868 to create Lake Temescal, the first Oakland municipal water supply. Until the early 1900’s, there was still a wide, wooden bridge on Telegraph Avenue, where they’re now building a two hundred unit residential building and a Whole Foods.
While the march of progress continues unabated, let’s take some time to enjoy what we still have here: the sun, the hills, each other, and the small bits of artificially constructed and re-pumped ‘creek’ surrounding the DMV. And maybe fifty years from now, you’ll sit back and say, “I drank some delicious wine in that spot on 40th and Webster.”
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights!: Italian reds and Loire Valley whites. Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Nebbiolo, Melon, Sauvignon Blanc & Romorantin. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 6/29: ITALIAN ROSÉ Tasting Flights – All new dry Rosés from Tuscany and Piedmont. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 6/30: ‘ORANGE WINE’ Flights: Skin-fermented wines from Croatia, California & the Republic of Georgia. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
When new folks roll into the shop, we're often asked if the framed glass back wall opens or lifts up. Some are confused or disappointed to find out there is no green "yard" at OAKLAND YARD. We explain how we got our name, a reference to the Oakland Shafter Yard that existed at our location, the end of the line when the electric trains rolled through what is now 420 40th St.
The theme of connecting remains. I was at wedding last weekend - two women celebrating one of those truly 'meant to be' moments and committing to a million more moments together, surrounded by redwoods and friends and family. It got me thinking about the connection I made to one of them, through her brother - and how the same man who so lovingly honored his sister also stood before our and friends and family to give the grand toast at my wedding. I thought of the connection I made to another man who hired me years ago at a shop in Brooklyn, who would eventually be the one to actually marry me and my wife - and play cello for the ceremony - andagree to open a wine shop together that same year.
And OAKLAND YARD continues to be a place of connections. I'm thinking this morning of Alyson of Flower & Forage who did the flower arrangements for the wedding, and has for many others who connected here since. I think of all the celebrations Brendan of Phantom Cellars has DJ'd or played guitar, all of the birthdays Tacos Oscar has catered, the local businesses Cassandra and Seth of Gold & Rust have hosted in their new space. I think of the kind neighbor I met at the shop who gifted me the old rocking horse my daughter is now climbing on. I think of all the children of past and future who have and will mount (and fall from) that tiny wooden horse. I think of all the shoes and the vintage clothing and antique jewelry that will be here this Saturday. All of these unique and lovely things, finding new hands and new homes, a new partner and a new purpose. Someone new to love them.
SATURDAY (6/22) The Artisan Flea Market is ON! Artists and makers, food and fun! Design. Dress. Decor. Delights. Bring your friends and roll on through. Admission s FREE!
Saturday, June 22nd, from 12-5pm. Vendors include Gold & Rust, Mind's Eye Vintage, Flower & Forage, Westwind Succulents, Charlotte Stone, Lucas Ahlstrand, Lauren Tedeschi Ceramics, Same E., Pablo Cristi. Tasty treats from Tacos Oscar and Nokni Oakland. Beverages from Steep Tea Co.! Outdoor Beer and Wine Garden all day and Tasting Flights from Phantome Cellars inside!
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Greek Whites and Rhone Reds. Your choice! Flights just $12 from 5-9pm and wines by the glass as always!
SUNDAY 6/23: SPARKLING FLIGHTS at OAKLAND YARD... The sun will be out and we'll be popping corks and pouring dry, delightful bubbly from around the globe. Flights 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!
See you soon,
Daniel
To liven up the shop, and to keep ourselves amused, we listen to music at Oakland Yard. By my calculations, we’ve thrown down more than 8,000 hours of the stuff since we opened, in 2014, and while you may not like all of what we play here – I’m often unpleasantly surprised by my own selections - my hope is that you’ll hear something new, something different, something that moves you, or makes you think.
Whoever is closest to the stereo when the music stops becomes the default DJ, and there are few rules about what can pass through our stately KLHs. Unless you’re playing B- sides and deep cuts, rule number one is no Hall & Oates. I don’t think it’s in the employee handbook, but it might as well be. Compilations of radio-friendly hits, like Bob Marley’s Legend, are also discouraged, as are the staples of dining in the nineties: The Buena Vista Social Club and the Gypsy Kings. To be clear, I don’t hate this music, but I’m always looking for something less tired, like Ronnie Foster, Nicolas Jaar, or Lulu Be.
We often play records in the shop, not because they are hip and cool, but because we’re anachronistic, and we sometimes lose internet service, and many of these old LPs are not available on Apple Music. Funk genius, Hamilton Bohannon, is grossly underrepresented online, but our forty-year-old wax brings it all back home, albeit a little scratchily. We’ve discovered that while Bohannon’s A-sides deliver red-hot, funky disco grooves, his B- sides are decidedly different; they are a series of dreamy, slow dances that can only lead straight to bed. Deliberately deployed, these B-sides have wrapped up countless nights in the tasting bar, with the interminable and gentle rocking two-chord vamp signaling that the night has come to a close.
Join us this week for some wine and music; hopefully you’ll taste and hear something new, something different, something inspiring, and if you stick around too long, you may fall prey the irresistibly soporific effects, the Siren-like call to bed, the Goodnight, Moon, of Bohannon’s Side B.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights!: Italian reds and Spanish whites. Frappato, Aglianico, Montepulciano, Hondarrabi Zuri, Albillo & Verdejo. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 6/15: LOIRE VALLEY Tasting Flights – All new Red, White, & Rosé from one of our very favorite regions. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 6/16: SOUTHERN FRENCH ROSÉ Flights: All Dry and delicious, pink wines from Provence and the Ventoux. $15 tasting flights from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
I was supremely afraid of the dark as a child. My parents rarely went out, but on the occasions they left us in the charge of my older brothers - an evening of ghost stories or some horror show was likely on the menu. Sometimes they were the show. A favorite prank would be to have their friends terrorize the house, unbeknownst to us little ones. Window taps and front doors rattling. Did you hear that?? We'd be shaking, looking to them for reassurance that never came. Oh no... I think someone's OUT there! The suspense would build. One of the older ones would go to "investigate". Audible gagging sounds, maybe a Please! Noooo!... And that one would not return. Eventually the door would bust open with those in on the joke barreling in, cackling. Good one, guys. It's also worth mentioning that there was an actual serial killer loose and active in our neighborhood at the time.
Despite all this, on some inspiring summer nights, for no particular reason beyond one of us thinking on it long enough, someone would propose pitching a tent in the front yard for a camp out.
There was a camaraderie in constructing our little home for the night. An absurd spectacle for Leif and Hilda, the elderly Norwegians peering down from their balcony next door. A pathetic blue pup tent lazily erected, or (if enough of us were game) the gargantuan brown canvas monstrosity that would often break my father's back and spirit - always such a ridiculous but wonderful sight in our small yard, beckoning one to give it purpose. I didn't always make it through the night, sometimes surrendering to the wind or a stray opossum. But I can still recall the first time I woke under the bright canvas ceiling, triumphant. My brother unzipping the flap, socks heading out onto the wet grass, then returning from the house, his head poking through: Pancakes are ready!
SATURDAY June 22. Tents will be erected. Camaraderie abounds. An empty lot transformed, such wonderful sights. No opossums, no terror. Only joy at OAKLAND YARD. The Artisan Flea Market returns. Artists and makers, food and fun! Design. Dress. Decor. Delights. Mark your calendars and tell your friends, tell your brothers, tell an elderly Norwegian: Saturday, June 22nd, from 12-5pm. Vendors include Gold & Rust, Mind's Eye Vintage, Flower & Forage, Westwind Succulents, Charlotte Stone, Lucas Ahlstrand, Lauren Tedeschi Ceramics, Same E., Pablo Cristi. Tasty treats from Tacos Oscar and Nokni Oakland. Beverages from Steep Tea Co.! Outdoor Beer and Wine Garden all day and Tasting Flights from Phantome Cellars inside!
And lots of fun in the meantime of course... TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights!!! Italian Whites and French Reds. Your choice... flights just $12 from 5-9pm and wines by the glass as always!
SATURDAY 6/8: Special Guest and local legend, Cory Gowan, at OAKLAND YARD pouring a stellar selection from the Mission Wine Merchants and Paris Wine Co. portfolio. Flights 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 6/9: PINOT NOIR FLIGHTS. Domestic new arrival and staff favorites:
2017 Kelly Fox Ahurani Vineyard
2015 B.Kosuge 'The Shop'
2017 Lioco Mendocino Pinot Noir.
Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8!
Hope to see you soon,
Daniel
As we look forward to our third summer on Fortieth Street, we can’t help but note that some things here have stayed the same, while others continue to change. You can still drink your Subrosa coffee and window shop for toilets at Moran Supply across the street, while electric riffs ring out from Broken Guitars next door. Just like previous summers, our rosé section is overflowing with goodies, and the liters of Austrian Gruner are flying from the refrigerator. And the punk kids of 1-2-3-4 GO Records are keeping it real, ensuring there’s never a dull moment on the block, maintaining the edge. Again, I’ve got my tomato plants on the roof, and we’re planning an outdoor Artisan Flea market for June 22nd and a rocking Block Party in July.
Tacos Oscar has hit their stride, serving up fresh tacos and tortas Thursdays through Mondays from 5 to 10pm; any denizen will tell you - the seasonal veggie specials are never disappointing and often downright revelatory. We were sad to say goodbye to Manifesto Bicycles, but happy to welcome Jaime of Dandelion Post, with her stylish selection of goods from local, socially conscious, and independent designers. And our friends at Umami Mart have moved from Old Oakland to their new spot on Broadway, just around the corner from another great addition to the neighborhood, Bernal Cutlery, where you can get a sharp new tool, or have your own sharpened.
And of course, we’ve got the same old Daniel, Max, and Jessie here at Oakland Yard, but you’ll also notice a few new faces behind the bar and on the sales floor in the coming weeks, and we hope you’ll welcome Meredith, Anna and Monique with the same smiles, jokes, digs, laughter and kindness that you’ve reliably brought to the rest of us every day for the last two and a half years. Here’s to many more!
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights: Argentine reds and French whites. Malbec, Mission, Bonarda, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier & Melon de Bourgogne. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 6/1: PINOT NOIR ROSÉ Flights: All Dry and delicious, pink wines from France & Germany. $15 tasting flights from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 6/2: MARITIME Tasting Flights - Red, White, & Rosé - with special guest Megan Hughes, and WINE CLUB PICK UP PARTY. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Cheers,
Max
I know I have some issues. I'd like to think most are benign or banal: a brain rattling aversion to styrofoam, a disdain for the squeakiness of green beans, a particular satisfaction cleaning lint traps, a suspicion of sneezing in odd numbers.
I'm not sure what this says about me, but I also have a curious proclivity to paint and repaint rooms and walls in every apartment I inhabit. Sometimes a color will stick - and then a new season, a new sofa, a new mood, and everything goes to hell. Over the years I've taken note of the bizarre color names. Most are painfully uninspired and uninspiring. Uncertain Grey. Anonymous Beige. Other get more psychological: Passive. Gateway Green (And you thought this was just recreational...). Some of the names are really out there, if not straight up creepy. Dead Salmon. Elephant's Breath. Mayonnaise. Lauren's Secret. Tony's Touch.
I was thinking about this the other week, painting walls in the new place and tasting through a couple dozen wines with Max later the same day. All these wines with odd names, or odd varieties. Some blends with unusual accents. Whites with skin contact. Reds with light extraction. It sounds so very obvious, but ultimately, you don't really know what's in the bottle until you pop and pour. Like choosing paint colors, you can't truly form an impression until the color is up on the wall and all around, enveloping you, mingling and reacting with everything else.
Thankfully tasting wines is far less time consuming and much more affordable than choosing the perfect color for your wall. Both exceptionally rewarding when they surprise and delight, when things mingle and react - and you smile and say that's the one.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! We're pouring Sauvignon Blanc from around the world for our white flights this evening and bold and balanced Spanish reds. Come taste and explore with us. See what clicks, what surprises and delights. Hopefully nothing will end up on the walls. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY: Rosé Flights. New pink arrivals from around the globe. All dry and delicious and all for you. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm
SUNDAY: Wines of LOIRE VALLEY. We are neither Passive nor do we keep any secrets about this being one of our most favorite wine regions. Come see (and taste!) why. Dry mineral Muscadet and other staff selections from Anjou and Saumur. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
Please note HOLIDAY HOURS: Memorial Day Monday we will be OPEN from 12-6pm. Tasting bar will be open all day and (of course) BBQ, picnic and party provisions sold here, always.
See you soon,
Daniel
My friends will tell you I am a man of few words, that, despite these lines I hunt-and- peck bi-monthly, I’m an otherwise uncommunicative person. Preferring silence to chatter - my own included – I’m distrustful of language, so easily misconstrued and misused. I truly think it better to remain quiet and be thought a fool, than to speakand remove all doubt, and I’ve heard enough opinions and disgruntlements in my forty-seven years to keep mine to myself.
As I see it, the world is a single thing, but to engage with it, we need to divide it into parts. Here lies the inherent violence of language: with each word, we designate a split, and things become this and not that. None of this, of course, is true, but as a construct, albeit a necessary one, it is nothing to hang even your least favorite hat on. In an effort to be one with the world, I stay quiet and keep things whole.
Thelonious Monk was known for listening to conversations without participating, and after a long silence, usually exasperated, he’d serve up a single sentence that would negate the entire discussion, unravel all the logic and expose the folly. Needless to say, I want more Monks. My refuge is music and art, plants and animals; my dear little Arlot is a dog of no words.
Daniel is away the rest of the week, ice-fishing in the Sierras, so it’ll be like a silent retreat here at Oakland Yard, with just me, and maybe some Brian Eno. Drop in if you want to liven things up a little. Or bring along a monk and remain silent. We’ll besampling red wines from California and Portugal for this rainy weekend, and while my esteemed colleagues, Jessie and Meredith, are hardly what I would call yammerers, they’ll be happy to answer questions, make recommendations, andlisten to your stories, while I sneak around and quietly stock wine.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights: ITALIAN reds and whites. Nebbiolo, Ruché, Negroamaro, Arneis, Garganega & Favorita. Flights $12 from 5-9 & wines by the glass until 9pm.
SATURDAY 5/18: CALIFORNIA REDS: A sampling of some of our favorite local treasures. $15 tasting flights of new arrivals and staff selections from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm.
SUNDAY 5/19: PORTUGUESE REDS: Dry reds from Bairrada, the Douro Valley and the Alentejo. Flights $15 from 2-6 with wines by the glass until 8pm.
Enjoy the silence,
Max
My brothers may demote me to cousin for sharing some of this. But it's on my mind this morning. To quickly bring you up to speed: every year around this time we all meet up with my father in the Sierras to fish and tell stories and eat and drink well. I've mentioned this yearly ritual in the past. I depart on Wednesday.
The last couple years have particularly meaningful for many reasons. The year before the previous trip, I shared with my brothers - over the first round of whiskey- that I was going to be a father. Joining them this last year as an official dad, I was able to participate in conversations about family in a different way. The one thing that struck me, and perhaps I noted this years prior too, is that they all speak highly of their wives behind their backs. She's hilarious. She's so good at this or that. She's awesome. She's been working her ass off. She's the best...
Thinking on that recently - I'm proud to have these kind of people in my life. But it's also a pride I feel in the shop, and something I've payed more attention to here. Different folks coming in all the time, saying the nicest things behind others' backs... I have the best neighbor in the world... I love that cafe, everyone there is so damn nice... My coworkers are hilarious. The owner of that shop is a gem. My partner is amazing...
What is the opposite of talking shit? Well, OK, it's saying nice things to people's faces. But.. what of that roundabout, never known way? What do we call those kind words behind backs? I don't know if there is even a phrase for this, but it struck me as a really wonderful thing this morning. And I really don't know who reads these, but I just may have heard the most wonderful things about you.
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights. French Reds and German Riesling. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass as always! Come share some great wine and some kind words, or just sip silently and eavesdrop on joy.
SATURDAY (5/11): ROSÉ FLIGHTS. A study in pink. All new arrivals from around the globe. All dry and all delicious and all yours from 2-6pm. Wines by the glass too until 9pm.
SUNDAY (5/12): CALIFORNIA GOLD! A sampling of some of our favorite local treasures. New arrivals and staff selections from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
See you soon,
Daniel
I have always been fascinated by the degree to which we identify with our likes and dislikes. As though it interesting or useful information, we declare, “chocolate just doesn’t do it for me,” or “I’m a big lobster person,” which always makes me think of a sphinx-like crustacean, with legs and claws. Our friend Joao asks, “If you are not a big fan of something, are you then a small fan?” If so, I am but a small fan of raspberries, if a fan at all, and this confounds people. “How could you not like raspberries?” They ask. Well, they often have a ‘mealy’ texture, even fresh, the bitter seeds always get stuck in my teeth, and the flavor simply does not appeal to me as much as other berries, which I quite like. Perhaps I had too many in my youth.
My mother is a big raspberry person. With two long rows at the edge of the back garden, and stakes festooned with bars of Irish Spring soap to ward off grazing deer, she has proudly tended her favorite berries since I was small, making jams and jellies from these, and, thankfully, also from the wild blackberries all around the yard. So, when my mother read in the local newspaper that Cornell University’s berry breeding program – the oldest in the US – had developed a high yielding raspberry plant, called the Crimson Treasure, with delicious fruit twice the size of normal raspberries, her interest was piqued.
Letter writing is my mother’s preferred mode of communication, but perhaps sensing the urgency of the situation, she went straight to the phone and called the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and left a message asking how she could acquire this fine new plant. After a few days, she got a call back from the scientist who created the variety, Courtney Weber, who informed my mother that seeds or plants were sold in groups of 200 to 500, but if she just wanted a few, she’d be happy to cultivate them for her. A classic case of “ask and you shall receive” - straight from the source - my mother will be driving to Geneva, New York to pick up her Crimson Treasures in a few months. I look forward to tasting them, though, as the lobster people will tell you, “bigger is not always better.”
We seem to get a lot of dog people at Oakland Yard, but we also welcome cat people, and if you’re a rosé fan, be sure to come by this Saturday. Or if you’re a big French person, we’ve got you covered all weekend…
SATURDAY 5/4: All French Rosé Flights. All new arrivals, all dry and delightful, and all for you. Flights $15 from 2-5 and wines by the glass until 9pm
SUNDAY 5/5: French Flights with special guest (and actual French person) Paul Duroussay pouring wines made by his friends and family – One red, one white, and one wild card. Flights $15 from 2-5 and WINE CLUB PICKUP PARTY with a free flight for members and wines by the glass until 8pm.
But first…tonight! THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS! All ITALIAN Reds and whites – three of each – new arrivals and old favorites - Flights $12 from 5-9pm.
Cheers,
Max
Are you guys new? We're asked this frequently. Time is relative and I'm still not certain how to answer. About two and a half years is how I respond these days and then they say something along the lines of Whoa, where have I been?
Years ago in Brooklyn, I remember stopping into a cozy and kitschy local haunt, nestled nearly on the shoulder of the BQE. Like the restaurant, or much of New York for that matter, our server emerged with a strange smile, somehow from another time. Quirky and gregarious. A kindly, nervous over-sharer. We knew much of his life story within 10 minutes of sitting down, some of it missed due to particular phrasings and his heavy accent. And his propensity to start (and often end) most sentences with "please". Please would you like some water please? He told us he was new, hired a week prior, and was pleased to be there. He was pleased about New York. He was pleased it was Wednesday. And he was pleased that we were there.
You may not believe me, but think I've only sent food back to the kitchen twice in my life. For the most part you can serve me a shoe and call it chicken and I'll accept my fate. But on this particular night I ordered the catch of the day and it was frozen inside. Ice crystals. When our server checked in to see if all was well I spoke up. He shook his head in silence for a brief moment, magnifying the gravity of the situation. He looked pained and disappointed. Please in all of my time here, this has never happened...
Said the man hired a week ago. Time is relative indeed. Two and a half years on, we still feel less 'new', I suppose. I'm not sure 'established' is the word - but certainly more part of this neighborhood and this city everyday. We're elated to grow with you and are all ears for suggestions and requests. Someone had hoped we'd expand our vermouth selections. A neighbor requested we extend our Thursday night hours. Another suggested we we have more tables for the tasting bar - done and done and done. With all this sunshine this past week, the two most frequent requests have been for the outdoor artisan flea markets to return - and to have more rosé tastings. More on the markets soon... but for now, we hear you and agree: let the pink party commence!
SATURDAY 4/27: All French Rosé Flights. New arrivals and staff favorites. All dry and delightful and all for you. Flights $15 from 2-5 and wines by the glass until 9pm
SUNDAY 4/28: Domestic Flights: Wines from California and Oregon, and New York. Two whites and 2 reds. Flights $15 from 2-5 and wines by the glass until 8pm.
And first.. THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS! Red and white flights, just $12. This evening we'll be pouring crisp, dry and refreshing Gruner Veltliners for the whites and savory Sicilian Reds. Flights $12 from 5-9pm.
See you relatively soon,
Daniel
Three years ago, when we were first looking at retail spaces in north Oakland, we knew what kind of shop we wanted to open, but hadn’t agreed on a name. In the spirit of not spitting, I wanted to call the shop ‘Swallow’ but that didn’t go over with the rest of the gang. When we were considering a space in the Temescal Alley, our friend Stefan suggested ‘Back Alley Alcohol Solutions’. Also not a keeper.
We settled on ‘Oakland Yard’ after researching the neighborhood and finding that, for a good part of the previous century, it featured an enormous train station spanning our block, called the Oakland Shafter Yard. We would continue the history of the site, we thought, as a public place where all walks of life converge, and where connections are made.
The name was not already in use by another business - excepting a youth athletic club in Waterford, Michigan – so we registered our DBA and went to work on Oakland Yard. Since then, I’ve fielded only one call from a mother hoping to sign her son up for soccer camp; otherwise little confusion there. At least one sales representative has typed ‘Oakland Yard’ into their GPS and somehow wound up in the West Oakland train yard.
Daniel came across this headline right before Halloween last year: ‘People Find Severed Head In Oakland Yard, Take It To Police.’ I guess the assumed lowercase ‘y’ should have given us some comfort, but we were rather disconcerted, until we read on... ‘Police investigators on Monday were trying to determine whether a decaying human head found in an Oakland backyard belongs to a recently discovered headless corpse.’ Okay, still disconcerting, but at least not in our Oakland Yard.
My favorite shop name mix-up happened last year, when I answered the phone one afternoon: ‘Hello, Oakland Yard, this is Max’ and the fellow on the line said, ‘Yeah, is this the Yard Master?’ I thought about it, and smiled, unknowingly, ‘um, sure, I guess you could call me that.’ and he continued “I was driving number two-seven-four this morning on track five…’ and then I cut him off, ‘Oh no - I’m sorry - you’ve got the wrong Yard Master.’
TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! FRENCH GAMAY OR SPANISH WHITES: Wines from Beaujolais, Cote Roannaise, Rioja & the Penedes - $12 tasting flights from 4 to 9pm.
SATURDAY 4/20: FRENCH SYRAH tasting flights – Perfect pairings for your Easter lamb: Syrah with Grenache & Syrah unblended, from the Rhone Valley, Provence & the Ardeche - $15 tasting - Flights from 2 to 6pm & wines by the glass until 9pm.
EASTER SUNDAY 4/21: LOIRE VALLEY tasting flights – whites & reds from the Touraine, Muscadet & Bourgueil – $15 tasting – Flights from 2 to 6 & wines by the glass until close*.
*Holiday Hours: Sunday 12-6pm
Cheers,
The Yard Master